Up in the gallery
by Naqia
Summary: There was a girl, the president's daughter, who did not wish to marry and her last chance in escaping that fate seems to be becoming an Avox in the Capitol. An Everlark story inspired by the fairytales Allerleirauh and Donkeyskin.


_Disclaimer: I do not own anything The Hunger Games trilogy related. All rights belong to Suzanne Collins. I merely write for my own entertainment and I certainly do not make any profit of it._

Chapter I: Where Katniss makes a decision

It was once upon a time that a girl named Katniss Everdeen was raised only by her mother, the president of a small hidden district known only by the number of Thirteen, whose existence was denied to the other twelve districts that formed the state called Panem. It was thus that she had everything that she needed and also, that unlike the rest, she did not have to have a skill.

But there came a time when she was 15 years old, when she became aware of the fact that due to her status, she could hardly go unmarried for long, as she had overheard in conversation about her dark hair and her smooth skin and of her being a desirable match. She knew there were only so few children in Thirteen and that she, being the president's daughter, had to be an example to others, whether she liked it or not.

But Katniss did not want to marry and she did her best to think of a solution. So she went to speak with her nanny, who had not only raised her but also the children of everyone who was busy with their occupations in the state of Thirteen. The wise old lady advised her to ask to be given a task. She thanked her cheerily and there was not much time passed before her mother asked her to come to talk.

As her mother had never cared too deeply for her, Katniss was very aware what was about to come. And thus, when her mother told her that Commander Perkin's eldest son had serious intentions towards her, it was the first time she did not obey, which made her mother dreadfully furious and the girl was accused of being selfish.

And maybe she was. But even though Katniss Everdeen followed the instructions of her nanny anyhow, and asked to be given a chance to show the inhabitants that she was like any other resident of Thirteen. Furthermore, she would do as her mother wished if she failed. Reluctantly, her mother agreed.

So the president's daughter was handed a soldier's uniform that was as dull as the other soldiers' uniforms and her hair cut the shortest her mother would allow, not by far as short as those of her comrades, though. But soon enough, she felt that she did not fit in, felt that everyone seemed to make it even harder on her, as if by request of her mother, or as if to show her that this was not her place, she could not tell. After an especially long day - she had been assigned to clean the weapons of all her comrades as detention for having missed a target (which was not true) she decided to leave.

Speaking to her old nanny a second time, Katniss was advised to be given another chance to prove herself and thus, Katniss went to see her mother to do so. Still unwillingly her mother agreed again, murmuring something about time being wasted.

Nonetheless, she made sure her daughter was handed a kitchen uniform less than one hour later. Being stubborn, Katniss stayed close to a month in the kitchen, chopping vegetables, sweeping the floor, firing the hearth and the ovens, kneading bread. The work was not to her heart's content and the food did taste like it, so she went to see her nanny a third time and the woman repeated her previously given advice.

It happened that very day that she saw a recap of the annual 73rd Hunger Games on TV due to the on-going Victory tour shown in the news of Panem. But this was not what caught her attention. It was that red uniform of a servant maid and an idea stuck into her head. So when she went to see her mother for the third time she asked to be sent into the Capitol as a spy in a maid's uniform to serve their cause.

Her mother did not laugh as she first had expected. Neither did she say anything, but Katniss could see the fury in her eyes and her heavy step as she went out of the room told her about her mother's true feelings.

So it came as a surprise when her mother agreed to her idea after one week, having not talked to her at all, emphasizing that this was her very last chance or she would make sure that she was married to Perkin's son within the minute of her return.

That's how the president and her daughter parted, before the latter one headed off to the Capitol to become a servant two months later.

* * *

Again Katniss had to learn that being an Avox - that was what those kinds of servants were called - was anything but desirable. What she had not realized before she was in the plane was that Avoxes did have their tongues cut out for having violated the rules of the Capitol. Of course no one had asked her to get this close to reality, but though it was awfully difficult to hide the fact that she still had hers.

Plutarch filled her in during their flight. Alike every self-important person who craved attention, he told her the plan in detail and did not miss any chance to point out his own genius spy role in the rebellion. As for now, he was only second in charge Gamemaker but he assured her that he was even more important than the Head Gamemaker when it came to actual interaction between all participants to the Games.

So she was told she was taking another Avox' place now, a girl whose name she had forgotten (and now lived in Thirteen as she had accompanied Plutarch on his official discovery trip to district Twelve for the exchange, but they altered the route as well as some computer data) and which, sadly enough, did not even matter as no one from the Capitol would directly speak to her. She would get all of her orders texted on a pager she had to keep around her wrist at all times of the day.

They reminded her of communicuffs (not that she had been allowed to have one herself), but were far more complicated and had three different ways to show the urgency of tasks.

She also shall not dare to speak, and must get used to the idea of sharing a dorm with 23 other Avoxes, and should seriously should try to get her hair in a decent up-do, so as to not leave any hairs around and especially not in someone's food.

The girl whose place she took had was supposed to be moved from serving in the government buildings to the Training Center and the Gamemaker's houses after the trip. Thus no one would figure out she was not who she was claiming to be, and from what anyone might had seen of her at the short exchange, they were vaguely similar in built and appearance.

Plutarch had even been so kind as to practice swallowing with her. He had put much emphasis on the fact that she should observe things - like making noises or chewing of others and to do it their way - to go unnoticed. And that, which mattered most of all, she had to be obedient all the time or he could not guarantee for her safety.

He also made sure that she had a special communicuff device which allowed her to send him secret messages if she needed to have a word with him if she pushed that little button on the back. As she was everything but a regular Avox and moreover he knew her mother would be everything but delighted, he had not let her implement a tracking chip, but had one hidden in her pager instead that would send every step she made to be supervised by his employee in charge of the housekeeping.

Following Plutarch's instructions closely as soon as she had arrived at her destination she took her time to examine the other ones. She noticed it took them even more effort to gulp then the way Plutarch had demonstrated her. And after two weeks she began getting unnerved to be only eating pureed food – of leftovers - or soup which was the compromise for having no tongue. The fear of being discovered stopped her from trying to befriend anyone, but doing so left her out even more than her observant attitude already had and she was eyed suspiciously more often than not.

Even after three months, she had not learned the sign language they used to communicate with each other, as nobody had bothered to show her how, but judging by the looks they gave her and the noises she assumed to be laughter, she often felt that she was the target of their fun. And she felt especially lonely in the bit of spare time she had and the general surrounding quietness did not help that cause.

As she had never been keen to talk in her life she wouldn't have imagined it would be so difficult to not speak. To be silent all day was becoming nearly as painful as being cut off by the others, as she had no way to vent in any other way than putting her anger into something productive like scrubbing floors. Those gestures were being misunderstood by the others as showing them off but Katniss could not know that. It is certainly not necessary to tell, that those actions only raised the suspicions they held against her as a Capitol spy.

Her hard times were particularly bad after lunch, before everyone went to bed and all the others sat around their table chatting. In the beginning she had stayed, sat wordlessly in her spot that everyone simply seemed to avoid and the person she ended up sitting next to usually turning his or her back to her. It did not take her thrice to understand the message and deep inside, Katniss felt lonelier than ever.

So to be sent off with one of the district trains was not the most unwelcome event after they had done all the preparation in the apartments, tended to the gardens on the roof and the gym days ahead, for it meant she only had to get along with one other Avox as each train held two of them to fulfill their guests' needs. Guests meant the mentors as well as the chaperone and the two poor souls that were drawn out of a bowl to be tributes for the Capitol's entertainment. It happened to be quite the same as letting people die the most public and bloody way possible and commemorate their deaths in festivities throughout the year.

Being the lowest in the unofficial ranking of Avoxes she was assigned to the unpopular district Twelve, and that she did not mind at all seeing as it was the poorest district, and from what she knew had rather tolerant Peacekeepers and not so absurd understandings of fashion. She deemed it quite refreshing to not see Capitol fashion for quite some time as she had grown up in Thirteen, where there were standards for every position a citizen could hold.

So she did leave the Capitol soon after together with Tristan, the male Avox whom she did get along well enough, and Effie Trinket, the district's chaperone who preferred to ignore the presence of them completely and did not leave her compartment more often than necessary. Even though she had a ridiculous amount of requests for her food which she wished to be fitting to her en vogue diet and a lot of help concerning her compartment when it came to finding the most advantageous temperature for dressing, reading, sleeping and working. To Katniss, Effie Trinket's understanding of working seemed to consist of rewriting a short speech a great deal and choosing matching nail polish to her dress as she has overheard a monologue of Effie about it that rang in her ears and gave her nice headaches after all those weeks of stillness.

While Tristan being more talented in cooking matters was doing most of it by himself, in silent agreement she was left to keep everything tidy and neat. As much as she would have wished to catch a whiff of fresh air after the long ride, they were denied to leave the train in District Twelve, something she had not seen coming.

A peacekeeper by the name of Darius was assigned to guard them and not only did he wink twice at Katniss, he was bold enough to give her flirtatious smiles and compliment her in a plump manner all the while they watched – and apart from that mutely - the Reaping ceremony of Twelve in the TV compartment of the train as it was due by the laws of the Capitol. So she took the seat farthest from him as to not seem encouraging in any way. Nonetheless she saw Tristan's smirks and what she could tell for sure was that he would report it back to his comrades to mock her, and after all, she knew nothing would be better after her return.

Miss Trinket, as designated, was the one drawing the names and as soon as the Mayor of the district had held his speech, thus the Reaping began. It was the "Ladies first" that caught Katniss' attention after having let her mind wander to the dark forests she had seen shortly before their arrival. What would she have given to be allowed a stride through the fascinating green as she had never been in a forest in all of her 15, almost 16 years!

Not caring about or maybe indeed not noticing the general discontentment Miss Trinket rummaged around through the slips of paper extra-long with an award-winning smile that can only be called absurd due to the situation. Then she straightened carefully the neatly folded paper that put the nail in one person's coffin.

"Cynthia Green!" As anyone would react in such a shocking moment if it was one's own fate nothing happened, the camera flashed back to the podium fully. Effie's smile faltered for the split of a second until she chirped again with that sickly sweet voice that was her trademark and greatly irritated people. "Cynthia? Cynthia, where are you dear?"

After a few seconds of utter silence on both sides a small face of a frightened girl appeared in the crowd that could hardly be older than 13. Or maybe the unblemished audience did not do her justice as her tiny frame was misguiding uprising guesses about her age. She made her way to the podium in complete silence, possibly praying to some greater god to make someone step in for her, maybe she was only fighting back her tears, but as Katniss could clearly see one was escaping her though. Cynthia struggled with a tight-lipped smile in an attempt to be brave that could merely be due to the fact that weeping tributes were often the least sponsored.

"Oh if this aren't tears of joy and pride! See how proud she is to be chosen this year's tribute!", commented Effie happily and raised Cynthia's arm in a victory pose unaware to the hateful glances she was getting from the audience. Of course Effie was oblivious as being Capitol raised made her oblivious to anything that could cause pain of others. And because she was buying the propaganda as she knew nothing of the real life and struggles, knew nothing of true feelings and most certainly not of the despair that everyone experienced in Twelve at the Reaping.

When Cynthia said nothing at all obviously silently embracing the idea of her imminent death Effie was turning her attention on pulling the male tribute's name. The heroine of our tale could not help but stare at the girl in the small frame blended in on the screen, that she scarcely heard the boy's name "Peeta Mellark" being called as she wasn't paying much attention to anyone but Cynthia.

Katniss felt like she could count all of Cynthia's ribs through the too small dress that barely fitted her anymore. The colour must have been of a rich brown once, brown like the bark of trees she had seen earlier (or brown like blood-pudding which was a common dish served in Twelve which Katniss hadn't yet the displeasure to eat) and a few threads were hanging loose at the hems if one took a closer look which most people usually did not. Because most people would not care about a tribute of the poorest district.

A green ribbon tied around Cynthia's waist could not hide a black stain properly. The stain was deriving from the little ink bottle, that her little brother had spilled over it accidentally on her last birthday, but of course Katniss could not know that when she swore to herself to fulfill Cynthia every need until she had to go to the arena.

It was then that it really hit her that the Games were real, that she was going to meet both tributes, serving them, that she could not keep her distance behind a TV screen as she had done all the years before. And the thought scared her so that she almost wished she had chosen marrying Morton Perkin and been safe from that reality after all. Maybe she had been better off not knowing what life in the districts was really like. But of course some things had to be learned the hard way and Katniss was not yet at the point of giving up.

Even though she did not dare to admit it out loud as everyone else to be honest, there was no chance that Cynthia was going to celebrate her next birthday. She became truly aware that she was now part of a system she despised and that she could do nothing but eavesdrop and gather information as it had been her own heart's desire.

It was only now that she took a first wondering look Peeta Mellark on the screen more accidentally to distract herself from her own haunting thoughts, a handsome boy, steady built, blond and quite the opposite to the light-weight and olive skinned Cynthia.

"Him of all the Mellark boys!" Darius mumbled and Katniss wondered what made him say that. What she couldn't have been conscious of then, was that she would learn about what he meant some time soon.

_A/N: There were two lovely ladies helping me a great deal with this chapter. So thank you so much Mary for being an awesome beta and whipping my nonsense into shape once again! And also thank you famousfremus for giving support and feedback! You rock!_


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